Grief has a language all its personal, however even the most productive therapists can get tongue-tied across the difficult stuff. Our grief vocabulary isn’t scientific, and you almost certainly received’t to find it within the self-lend a hand books that buddies hand you after the memorial provider. But this does come from some exhausting-earned revel in: We each misplaced oldsters as younger adults. Loss is messy, melancholic and continuously darkly hilarious. It additionally lingers without end. Here’s a word list that takes all that into consideration. Use it smartly.

Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner are the authors of the e book “Modern Loss,” from which that is tailored. Illustrations through Peter Arkle.ommcomm